The Best Home Gym Equipment

Time to get started on that New Year’s resolution.

Remember that creaky stationary bike your grandma used to have in her basement? Well, forget about it. Today’s big-ticket home-gym equipment is nothing like that. The list of treadmills, bikes, and rowing machines below are so advanced that you can join live classes or work out with a virtual personal trainer right from the comfort of your own living room. It’s 2018, people, there’s no need to schlep all the way to the gym to have someone yell at you to work harder and run faster. And if you’d like to add some smaller items to round out the gym, we’ve written about a variety of those and gone deep on foam rollers before.

“NordicTrack makes a rower called the RW200. It’s super lightweight, and for the cost, it’s a really bare-bones approach to getting a piece of cardio equipment into your house. Rowing is a really efficient form of exercise. It works the upper and lower body, while also focusing on core strength. The machine itself completely folds up, too, so you don’t have to worry about keeping it in your living room all the time. For the price, it’s the most practical.” —Emily Abbate, fitness consultant and freelance editor

“A rower is hands down the best bang for your buck when it comes to investing in a big-ticket home-workout machine. Rowing is truly a full-body workout that uses almost every major muscle group in your body, including your legs, back, core, and arms. Engaging so many muscles simultaneously elevates your heart rate and burns a lot of calories. Even when your strength and endurance improve, rowing can be made more challenging, so this machine will never become obsolete as your fitness level increases. Challenging yourself is as simple as rowing harder or rowing faster, and as you push yourself on a rower, your cardiovascular health, endurance, and overall strength and power will continuously improve. Plus, rowing is a low-impact exercise and is a very safe form of cardio suitable for everyone.” —Eric Salvador, head trainer, Fhitting Room and certified indoor-rowing instructor

“The NordicTrack X22i incline trainer is a treadmill that goes up to a 40 percent incline where most treadmills stop at 15. It has the greatest running deck because the motor is at the back, whereas most have that at the front where your impact zone is, so it has a much greater buffer. Along with all of this is a massive touch-operated screen console with iFit technology. Not only can you choose to work out with iFit pro trainers on the machine in real time at the greatest locations in the world, but it also automatically increases speed and incline for you as the trainer leading your workout accelerates or climbs. All stats are saved so you can monitor your results and gauge progress. New workouts and destinations are added all the time, too.” —Steve Uria, founder, Switch Playground

Other (cheaper) versions of NordicTrack treadmills are available on Amazon here.

“I’m in love with the Octane Zero Runner. The company just released its first version to a residential market. The beauty of the machine is that it has a ‘knee joint,’ which enables you to use a much more natural running gait than a more traditional elliptical trainer, while still giving your body a break from the impact of treadmill or outdoor running. I actually trained for a 15k trail race this past year using the Zero Runner for the vast majority of my training. For someone like me, who often has to scale back running due to back issues, the Zero Runner gives me the chance to maximize indoor training with a natural running gait without killing my body in the process. Of course, it’s spendy, at around $3,000, so not something you’d want to purchase without trying it first. Also, it takes some getting used to. Getting the form right isn’t as intuitive as some machines. You have to be willing to work at it a little bit to master the movement. It took my husband about a week’s worth of workouts to feel comfortable.” —Laura Williams, author, fitness instructor and founder, Girls Gone Sporty

“The Bodycraft allows you to work every muscle group in a variety of ways, and its exercises are strength-based to help you build muscle, boost metabolism, and burn fat. It’s also fun because two people can use this at once.” —Radan Sturm, founder, Liftonic

“The Bandbell is a unique bar that’s unlike any other for injury-prevention, strength training and rehab, or pre-hab. It also challenges your core since it forces you to stabilize. I also recommend everyone having resistance bands at home, and the best brand out there is the SlingShot. They are easy to store, use, and travel with. Plus they can crush your glutes!” —Kirk Myers, founder, Dogpound

“Every single client that walks into the gym wants to reduce their body fat and lose weight, but doesn’t want to put in the time, or they lack time. So an at-home workout machine is perfect for fitting around busy schedules and making quick fat-loss gains. Bikes are the biggest bang for your buck. One of my favorites is the cutting-edge indoor bike from Peloton. Users can go in a live or taped stream and they’ll be in a workout-class setting. This increases the motivation they need to get the workout done. It’s a great way to burn fat, release endorphins, and overall feel fabulous.” —Harry Hanson, Hanson Fitness

“The Skillmill is by far one of the most innovative and effective exercise equipment I’ve seen in years. It allows the user to push their body to the limit by completely controlling the motion of the machine by human force instead of the motor (it has no motor). You can also adjust the resistance for power-development workouts to add variety to your workout routine. It’s excellent for short, high-intensity, metabolic-conditioning workouts rather than long, low-intensity workouts. You can achieve advanced cardiovascular and strength workouts in a short period of time while only needing minimal space for the machine itself. We use it at our Life Time clubs as a part of our training programs for our clients. It’s high-performance and ultracool.” —David Juhn, personal-training manager, Life Time Athletic Sky

“If the sky’s the limit on budget, the CardioGym CG6 is everything you could ever need for an at-home workout with coached HITT programming while you cycle. If that’s too sky-high, the Peloton Bike is a great option. When I’m on the road, I always have my ‘I Get Around’travel kit, complete with everything you need to work arms, abs, and booty on the go.” —Bec Donlan, curator of Hotel Americano’s #FitnessAmericano program

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